Sri Lanka donated two young female Indian elephants to the Prague zoo, where they arrived on Saturday, flown to the Czech Republic by a Sri Lankan military plane, Prague zoo director Miroslav Bobek said.
The elephants, eight-year-old Janita and seven-year-old Tamara, are from Pinnawala.
In return, the Prague zoo will send two comodo dragons, two Przewalski horses and two young hippopotamuses to the Dehiwela Zoologial Gardens.
"The elephant acquisition is Sri Lanka's gift to the Czech Republic rather than routine exchange of animals between zoos," Bobek said.
Prague zoo deputy director Jaroslav Simek said it is a unique project that will largely help extend the genetic base of the European breeding of Indian elephants.
"The elephant acquisition is the result of long-lasting efforts of [Czech] ambassador Miloslav Stasek and other officials from the Czech diplomatic mission to New Delhi, of the Czech Foreign Ministry and also of the fans of the Prague zoo," Bobek said.
The whole project that has been prepared for two years will cost the zoo 4.5 million crowns.
The newcomer elephants will be accommodated in a new pavilion completed in the Prague zoo and is now inhabited by an Indian elephant male and three females, including a pregnant one.
The Prague zoo wanted to bring four new elephants from Sri Lanka but the country never provides more than two to foreign applicants.
Courtesy: CTK
Source: Daily News (08th October 2012)
